Coming Up... An ex AEW star shoots on Britt Baker.
AEW’s ticket struggle. The truth behind a WWE change,
and my review of AEW Dynamite.
I’m Oli Davis, and this is the WrestleTalk News.
Britt Baker, the first breakout women’s Ex AEW Star Shoots On Britt Baker wrestler in AEW, hasn’t had the
smoothest return from injury. After being out for over nine months, she came
back at June’s Forbidden Door pay-per-view, setting up a match for Mercedes Mone’s TBS title
at AEW’s biggest show of the year All In… and got legitimately suspended several weeks later for a
reported backstage altercation with MJF and his girlfriend Alicia Atout. While MJF has said the
situation was massively overblown in the wrestling news media, the fact remains AEW’s disciplinary
panel saw it fit to suspend Baker for a week. Then, on Sunday’s All In show, Baker and Mone’s
match was the weakest on the card. A lot of this was due to the placement - coming four hours
into the wrestling, and after the crowd had tired themselves out with the MJF/Ospreay match, and the
Casino Gauntlet. But former AEW star Mark Henry, who’s contract with them expired back
in May, has blamed the match on Baker during an appearance on Busted Open Radio:
“I'm used to seeing Mercedes work a certain way and she didn't work like that, and I
don't think that was because of her. Also, there were times they did a couple of things
over again, because it didn't get done right the first time, and a lot of that was the fact
that the position that Britt was in was wrong." Henry also accused Baker of sandbagging - where
you block an opponent’s move by deadweighting them when you’re not meant to - during the backbreaker
off the ropes spot. Baker had previously accused Thunder Rosa of sandbagging her.
"It would take for both people to be on the same page, and work together for the
greater good of the match — not the greater good of the individual. 'I don't want this
person to shine over me. I don't want them to look good at my expense. I'm a pillar!'
That's a work. You're just the first woman hired. Get your ass out there and work for
that person like your life depended on it." In her newsletter, Mercedes declined to criticise
Baker, but did admit to not being happy with the match, acknowledging the mixed reactions, and
how she sensed some audience fatigue due to the placement on the card. She noted how she would
have done a lot of things differently, and that she should have listened to her instincts.
Following the huge success of selling AEW Tickets Struggle 50,000 tickets for England’s All
In, AEW has come crashing down to their reality of domestic ticket sales.
WrestleTix is reporting that before the show, last night’s episode of Dynamite was set to
host fewer than 2,000 fans, in Illinois’ State Farm Center that can hold 16,500 people. [TWEET]
They add that next week’s Dynamite only has 3,000 tickets sold, and next Friday’s Collision
has shifted under 2,000 tickets. So far, just over 6,000 tickets have been distributed
for September 7th’s All Out pay-per-view, which is only 10 days away, a 30% drop on
the 9,000+ figures sold in 2022 and 2023.
Truth Behind WWE Change WWE have now confirmed their commentary teams
will be changing from September, with Michael Cole and Corey Graves hosting SmackDown from
its debut on the USA Network on the 13th, and Wade Barrett being joined by new play-by-play
lead Joe Tessitore on Raw from the 2nd. This means Corey, who moved into the lead
commentator role on SmackDown back in February, is being moved back to a colour commentary position.
PWTorch is reporting this isn’t anything to do with Corey’s performance, but that WWE’s new head
of production Lee Fitting is a long time friend and big proponent of Tessitore, and has been
working to get him hired for play-by-play since he joined the company at the start of this year.
Now here’s a message from Turbo Jack…
AEW Dynamite Review Now it’s time for my review of
AEW Dynamite… in about 5 minutes.
The show started with a bang, because as soon
as Excalibur was done running down the card, we got the surprise return of PAC!
I’m really confused about who’s in the Blackpool Combat Club right now.
Jon Moxley entered through the crowd and spoke to Tony Schiavone in the ring, where… he was weird.
He said he’s been doing a lot of thinking in the two months since we last saw him, called out
Darby Allin, and then told Schiavone that this isn’t his company anymore.
Wrong Tony, Jon. Also, Shane McMahon buying
AEW storyline confirmed. Later on, Marina Shafir beat up a few production
hands backstage for Moxley, putting them together as an act. This was all very strange.
Our first match saw Hangman Page and Tomohiro Ishii do what they do best - beat
the ever loving piss out of each other. This was almost like a non-stop forearm
strike exchange, the only respite being men getting dropped on their necks - like
B-Boy Ishii busting out his new breakdance move on the apron off a DDT, and Page landing
horribly on his shoulder off an Ishii Deadeye. Hangman hit a Deadeye of his own though,
followed up by a Buckshot, to win. But we’ve only got ten days until the next
pay-per-view, so we better get these angles going. After Hangman’s distraction in the All In main
event, Swerve Strickland came down to get in his face, where he said he felt sorry for Page,
that his obsession with Strickland is costing him everything, and Swerve’s now obligatory
reference to your opponent’s wife and child. Hangman screamed at him for breaking into his
home, fair, and that Swerve had needed help to beat him every time. He’s never beaten him clean.
So Strickland offered a stipulation that always definitively stops interference
- a steel cage match at All Out. Rather than a bloody brawl like they
usually do, Hangman stormed off instead. Jamie Hayter then squashed Harley Cameron
in her return match, all while staring a hole in Saraya. She looked great.
MJF came down now just in a grey suit and black shirt and scarf, the monochromatic
opposite to the over the top colours of his Mr America gimmick. But it was the strips of physio
tape just visibly above the scarf around his neck that were most telling. He has been seriously
injured by Will Ospreay’s Tiger Driver finish. Max renounced his American citizenship because
they didn’t help him for his All In defence, and he says Will cheated by
having Daniel Garcia interfere. Which prompted a surprise attack from PAC.
I mean Jon Moxley. I mean Daniel Garcia. Garcia is no moral babyface, though. He went for
a piledriver off the second rope to fully break Max’s injured neck. Security stopped him just
in time, it was announced they’ll fight at All Out and Garcia invented a new kind of mic drop
- the mic throw, where he lobbed it up the ramp from the ring, hitting Max in the shoulder.
With Max’s neck injury, this is perfectly built for Garcia to get a huge win over him.
I might not have gotten my six man fun this week. But I’ll settle for 8 man mania
instead. Especially when Tony Khan told me to trust him it’s going rock
And when has Tony ever abused my trust by overpromising before?!
It saw Hook and the Conglomeration take on Roderick Strong and The Learning
Tree. Just when I thought Hook was out of the Jericho Vortex, they pulled him back in.
Big Bill got a hot tag on the heel side, but the crowd was pretty bad and didn’t really react.
And then the finish was Hook making Strong tap in the Redrum, but Strong’s tiny boot was clearly
on the ropes. The Undisputed Kingdom then beat up Hook after, seemingly setting up a feud for
that joke of an FTW belt. This finish was bad. Mercedes Mone presumably dusted off a backstage
segment idea from 2019 WWE, where she had an awkward, lifeless title celebration party
where there was no music or background chatter. Private Party tried to hit on her, so Okada
taught her how to say bye bitch in Japanese. You know how it’s the job of agents to make sure
wrestlers aren’t using the same on important spots on the same card? The next segment
was also a women’s title celebration. Mariah May told Tony, however, that her one will
be postponed because your local town sucks. It built to her revealing her outfit underneath
her robe, while wearing the women’s belt. We then got a backstage clip from All In, where
the Grizzled Young Veterans told the Young Bucks they’re coming for the titles. And then there
was a second promo filmed today that sounded exactly the same, setting up their match against
the Outrunners on Rampage, meaning James Drake said ‘Grit Your Teeth’ twice in about 30 seconds.
There was a recap package of Takeshita in the G1. He’ll be returning on Rampage too.
Then Ricochet got his Dynamite debut taking on Kyle Fletcher.
Ricochet hit some fun spots, like a springboard off the barricade, into
a roll through suck it taunt at the camera, but I must admit I was more into Fletcher.
Ricochet won with his old finisher, the Vertigo. I thought the post-match angle, however, was
awesome. Will Ospreay walked out onto the stage, teasing the two wrestlers who made each
other’s names interacting, but PAC hit a poisonrana from outta nowhere on Ospreay and
started screaming don’t forget about him, as they’ve got a match at All Out, and that
Ricochet can get to the back of the line. And the final segment saw Bryan
Danielson address his future after winning the world title and not retiring.
He called All In his career favourite moment, even choking up a bit, but acknowledged he needs neck
surgery, and he’s got to go home. But not yet! He’ll be a fighting champion, but when he
loses the title, his full time career will be over - setting up a super dramatic
every match is a retirement match run. He issued an open challenge for All Out, which
was answered by the TNT Champion Jack Perry on the tron. But it was all a trap, because that was
actually a prerecorded message… for an impromptu open challenge… I think Jack Perry might be
Batman… as Perry attacked Danielson from behind. It all makes sense, as Perry beat Darby Allin
strong on Sunday, he’ll get loads of heat at the pay-per-view in Chicago, I imagine
Swerve vs Hangman will be the main event, and it is only a ten day build.
However, it’s not a match I’m particularly excited by.
This week’s episode of Dynamite is 74%. Now go watch us play Tricky Towers over on our
video game channel CTRL Freaks. Here’s a clip.